The Clifton clarion., 1887-05-11
THE ORa or BAY.
antc-es'ing Firts About the soinr
 SyNteE1's Central Enxsne.

Sy SCutEs-h
 Harper's Magazine: Tie visible glcbe Of the sun is 1,250.c0Q times as large as the earth; within the surface so seen there lies a mass exceedingthe earth's 320, ,0OO times; the materials present in the suns globe are the same as those which form the globe of our earth-at least, we know that iron, copper. zinc, sodium, magnesium, calcium, titanium and a number of other metallic clements are present; hy- drogen is certainly there i'll enor- nous quantities, and Dr. Henry Draper proves also that oxygen is present, and no astronomer doubts that those other clements which have not as yet been detected in the sun are really present in his mass.
 Now, have we any evidence as to the way in which the mighty mass of the sun is disposed within that surface which incloses what we term it's volume?-though in reality one can hardly say what it's volume is, seeing that there are portions of hls mass outside the surface which bounds his visible globe. Is the sun's mass uniformly distributed throughout that visible globe, 1.250.000 times as large as our earth? or, on the other hand. 1 is the denser part near the surface so that the sun IS what Professor Young once suggested, gigantic buhlA? There are three lines on which We can seek for an answer to these questions.
 Firstly, we find that the visible surface of the sun behaves in a manner inconsistent alike with the i idea that it's surface is near the real surface of an inferior globe, and with the idea that the visible surface is part of a mighty vesicle or bubble. The spot zones are carried around at different rates, according 10 their distance from the equatorial solar regions. Not to follow Faye and others in nice ties Of calculation liar frcm jrsti- fed by lhe evidence we hGvo). l may say that the equatorial zcne gaiIs a!'out on" rotation iD seven on tbe spot zones, or. roughly, some 2.7O0,GGG miles in 2C0 days say 13,5M miles per day. Suci, s velocity as this, clnse on ten miles Lin a minute, conld nct possibly ex- ist i'll uLond-,adrn reigon (such az | the visible ssytace ot the sun un- douGj:. ..diy is1Ad as affecting re- gions exec, eoins ta, whole surface of the earth sn;eorsas, of times, unless that cloud-IautAA region were very fir away from the real .Ericca of tl.e suL, and therefere from the frictioGal effects nf the true solar rotation. Tie real mass Of the sun. however distributed, can only rotate as one; the visible cloud surface has many rates of rotation; therefore there must se an enormous distance between the two.
 Secondly, calculation has been made by competent mathematic- ians respecting the amount of polar compression which would arise from the rotation of globe such as the sun appears to be at the avarage rate of rotation indi- | cated by the solar spots. It is ' found that the polar fstteniug would be we'll within the measur- ing capacity of our best instru- ments. But if Lhefelis one thing (~i'hia s"s.adsk {. appas, ent globsit E !d6ed at all. It is absolqta Jain, then. tbat the real gl61e q tEs Sun lies far with inst 1k{ace of flowing clouds ! bI .b e see and measure.
 ] 5fdly, our earth has her story ! to tell about the suns ipteri.ir. I Me know from the earth's crust that, for periods of time which geologists now estimate by tens of millions of years, the sun's power has been at work on the earth's crust, by rain, wiud, and s.orm, fashioning and rrfashioning the structures of that ernst, now form ing layers, anon cutting them up
 bat throughout leaving clear tra- ces of his hsndiwork. Croll esti.